2024-2025 Catalog 
    
    Dec 03, 2024  
2024-2025 Catalog

Game Design and Development (GDD), BI™


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The Bachelor of Innovation™ in Game Design and Development (GDD) is a degree within the Bachelor of Innovation family. It is a rigorous technical curriculum based heavily on programming and game design topics with important cross-disciplinary breadth in art, music and other fields. The program as a whole will let students build the foundational knowledge and develop the skills necessary to form their own independent game development companies or to pursue employment in the games industry. In addition to traditional games for entertainment, the game industry includes Serious Games (games designed for simulation and training, educational games, games for health care, and so on) and Casual Games (small, short games played in a Web browser or on a cell phone, for example).

The Bachelor of Innovation family requires an innovation core, a cross-discipline core, and a set of general education courses in addition to the rigorous technical degree. The combination of the GDD-specific coursework and the core Bachelor of Innovation™ topics and experiences will position students to form a new small company to develop entertainment and serious games; pursue a career at a traditional entertainment game development company; join a company that develops or utilizes Serious Games; or use the critical thinking, design, programming and teaming skills developed throughout the curriculum to pursue employment outside the games industry.

Learning Outcomes  

  • Understand and apply game design principles in various domains
  • Understand and apply programming fundamentals
  • Understand and apply advanced software development techniques
  • Understand and apply Innovation Core concepts in a team-based business environment

General Information

The Bachelor of Innovation (BI) degree in Game Design and Development requires the following:

  • A minimum of 120 hours with a cumulative CU GPA of 2.0. At least 45 of those hours must be upper division (courses numbered 3000 and higher).
  • A grade of “C” or better in each course with a CS or GDD prefix applied to the major.
  • A minimum 2.0 GPA must be maintained in all CS course work.

Additional general education course work is required to complete the Game Design and Development, BI degree. Please see the advising guide on the Academic Advising website for more information and a sample 4-year schedule.

Course Requirements


The degree described below is structured into core competency, team courses, specialty areas, and a variety of other categories required for the degree.

The courses for the degree are outlined as follows:

GDD Team Courses (9 credit hours)


Complete the following three-course sequence that focuses on team-based game development.

GDD Specialty Area (15 credit hours)


Complete all 5 courses from one of the Specialty Areas listed below, for a total of 15 credit hours.

GDD or CS Electives (6 credit hours)


Complete 6 credit hours of upper-division (3000 level or above) CS or GDD electives not already being used to fulfill degree requirements.

Mathematics (7 Credit Hours)


Complete 2 courses from the list below.

Natural Science (8 Credit Hours)


Complete the Physics lecture and lab below, plus 3 additional hours of natural science from any of the following departments:

  • Biology, Chemistry, Geography, Geology, or Physics

Additional General Education Courses (18 credit hours)


Complete remaining General Education courses, to include 3 hours of First-Year Writing, 3 hours of GPS 1010, and 12 hours of open electives.

NOTE: Students whose GPS 1010 is waived will complete 15 hours of open electives.

BI Cross-Discipline Core - EAS (15 credit hours)


Complete one of the Cross-Discipline Cores listed below. Each Cross-Discipline Core consists of 15 credit hours. Open the expandable lists to see course options.

For more information on the Bachelor of Innovation degree, see the program page: Bachelor of Innovation™ (BI) Degree 

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